The countdown is on to fight time. This is Big Fight Weekend. Now
here is your host Djwaves. Well, we get ready in a brand new
month on Saturday for the five versus Five card in Saudi Arabia headlined by Deontay
Wilder and Jalai Jiang. The heavyweights. Heavyweights are gonna be at the top
of this bill, but it's an outstanding card. We're ready to preview it.
We've got fight news and much more. You are locked in with the
Big Fight Weekend Preview pod. I am the somewhat competent host. TJ.
Reeves. Hello again, Dan Rayfield ready for the weekend. Our insider Fight
Freaks Unit is his substack Big Fight Weekend dot Com Batty Vatty intriguing weekend.
Good to be back with you on all fronts. How are things as we
have? It's June. It's June comes Saturday. I know we're releasing the
podcast Thursday night into Friday, but it's June come Saturday. Are we ready?
Are we ready? Come on? Man? I was born ready and
I'm really really pumped up for this card on Saturday. And we're going to
roll along here because we've got a Jervonte Davis pay per view. We're gonna
talk Mike Tyson in his health situation, but to Jake pull, Mike Tyson
looming, Terrence Crawford headlining for an August read a season Saudi Entertainment Authority card
in La. We are rolling here through the summer, and again make sure
you're following or subscribing on this podcast feed. We preview going into the weekend.
We recap most of the time coming off the weekend. The rare exception
is like this weekend because Rayphael I got to share it with the audience that
I am out of touch, I am out of incomunicado. I am on
an Alaskan cruise. God help me with the wife, the twins, the
in laws, my brother in law. So as we release this podcast,
we are cruising. So the preview stands for this weekend. If you want
the recap, obviously, subscrib I have the Dan substack. I know you're
also doing stuff with the Title Sports Network. I believe I have that correct
it with Title Sports Network with Michelle Phelps. You're gonna give some reaction to
them so you can get your plenty of ray Field off the social media,
off of YouTube, off his substack we just won't have a recap podcast for
this weekend because I may be wrestling a CoDIAK bear in the wilderness of Alaska
this weekend instead of this recap, as I joked around with you, since
we of course do the bet US show. That's right. I've got the
bear and I've got the under and a TKO potentially with me, So we
will try to survive all of this. God willing, We're leaving out of
Seattle and then returning late next week and there will be a recap or a
preview podcast and a recap podcast next weekend, but just for this weekend,
not a recap. We got you the preview. They're gonna get plenty.
You got plenty of ways to hear and see Dan and what he thinks about
what happens. But that's how that goes, all right. So with all
of that being said, make sure you're following, make sure you're describe.
We should make mention too, the bet US show was already done for this
week, so you and I have kind of already previewed the fights on bet
us. But for the podcast audience, just in overall terms, we don't
work for the people that are involved Queensberry match Room, the Saudi Entertainment Authority
and the promotion here. But this is a fascinating, intriguing card really about
one through five, if not more of the fights, and we're looking forward
to talking about it more here on the pod. Yeah. I mean,
look the five on five, which is the whole genesis of this is the
five boxers with Mattroom boxing against five you know, similarly similar leveled fighters from
Queensberry, and they're making him they're the one thing I don't like about it
is they're making it about the promoters more than the fighters, when when you
look at the key art that they did, it's Frank Warren facing off with
Eddie Hearn, which is kind of ridiculous. But put that aside, the
massups that they've come up with are fantastic. Every single fight of the five
we're going to talk about is interesting for one reason or another. They all
are, in my opinion, and I think the odds makers relatively reasonable betting
odds in terms of you know, who they think is going to win.
And on top of the five fights, you get, I guess we'll call
it a bonus. You get Dmitri Bible back in action defending the light heavyweight
belt that he owns against Malik Zinad, a late replacement because unfortunately, what
was probably the best fight of the entire year on paper anyway, between Bibble
and better Beev is postponed because better Biev has suffered a knee injury, and
as has happened to him frequently, unfortunately, he is very difficult to get
to the post because he's very injury prone. Unfortunately, Hopefully they'll be able
to take care of this fight later in year, But in the meantime,
Bibble comes back to defend. No reason for him the waste of training camp
and not get paid and not put on another defense. But the main events,
the main event fights of the show are really the five versus five he
slots in in the middle of the lineup. But it's really about these five
matchups that we're going to talk about that's just tremendous. I mean to me,
it's as deep and as interesting a card as there is. Only one
I think that maybe is ahead of it in recent times, will be the
one that's on paper right now. Schedule for August third, that you mentioned
about the main event p in Terrence Crawford against Israel Majimov, which is an
incredible card and frankly could get much deeper because if the Deontay Wilder wins his
fight against Jang on this card and it comes out of that with no injuries,
there's a very good chance they're going to add Deontay on the August card
against Jared Anderson. So we'll see about that. But the five fights we're
here to discuss tremendous, trendous matchups all across the board. And again we
keep explaining this Turkey Ala Chic and the and the Saudi Entertainment Authority. They
had the Day of Reckoning card in December, but certainly for this calendar year.
Right now, this one looks loaded, but that that Day of Reckoning
card was loaded with fights, and the fight fan it is a pay per
view. The fight fan is getting their money here out of all this.
So let's let's start at the top. You and I are intrigued Deontay Wilder,
who you talk to on this podcast, And I don't think it is
an overstatement here. This is this is truly a moment here of is he
gonna continue as a high level championship continuing fighter or is it bye bye?
Because he was awful the last time out. He's been inactive, by his
own admission to you on the previous pod, and when we put that conversation
up on the podcast speed he's got concerns. He even talked to you about,
Hey, I'm going back to some of the stuff that worked before.
I'm changing my mindset, my strategy a little bit in this Shang fight.
So there's real question marks about Deontay. And you've got an older opponent in
Jang, who scored a couple of big wins over Joe Joyce. They both,
though, have recently lost to Joseph Parker. Jang lost to Joseph Parker
as well. All right, give me some more on the headlining fight now
coming up Saturday afternoon US time, Saturday night late night in Saudi Arabia.
Well, Deontay hasn't been inactive if you consider the fact that he did have
the fight that took place back in December. It's not for him. This
is a pretty quick turnaround because he had the long way OFFFS prior to that.
But the reality is he's thirty eight. Looked terrible against Parker. He
knows it, and it's a matter of can he be more active him and
I if you listened to the podcast, as we talked about for a long
time, he used a tremendous jab to set up the big right hand.
And as he got more successful and it got later in the career and he
was scoring the big knockouts, he kind of got away from that. It
became just a matter of let me look for the one shot. Never was
it more evident than in the fight that he had rematch wise against Louise King
kong Ortiz, where the entire fight he was losing every single second of every
single round and it was only if and when can I land one single right
hand and end the fight, And he somehow was able to do that and
in the fight, and you fall in love with that punching power. But
what makes the punching power so devastating, besides just the concussive force of it,
is the way that he set it up to lure the guy in with
his long jab and get rid of the guy with the big right hand that
came behind it. And so again in the interview that we did that folks
can listen to, he talked about having this great phone call where he sought
out the advice of Klitschko, who he knows for many years. They share
Shelley Finkle as a manager for many years, and Vladimir told him, listen,
you got a great jab, but you got to use it, and
that sort of like that, he said, a sort of lights which went
off in his head, and he realized that that's very significant and important to
his repertoire of things that he does. Now he goes in with Jang,
who is even older than Deontay. Deontay is thirty eight, but Jang is
forty one. Now, the thing about Jang is this, he had two
big wins, as you mentioned, against Joe Joyce. But the question I
have is is that was just the right opponent because the rest of his career
has been not much. Prior to fighting Joyce was the fight against Hergovic,
which was close but he didn't win. I thought it was a legitimate decision.
He lost a close fight. Prior to the Hrgovic fight, he thought
a bunch of nobody's. The one time he even remotely stepped up was against
Jerry Forrest, and that was like a near disaster. He got knocked down.
It was a draw. In the hospital after the fight for some dehydration
issues and that sort of thing. So his career is two fights against Joe
Joyce that are wins, and then, of course, after the Joe Joyce
two wins, he lost to Parker. So he takes the two wins against
Joyce, and on each end of it he's got the lost to Hargovich and
the loss of Parker. So I question how good Jang really is even though
he's a very big man. He's an Olympian, but he's forty one.
He's got tremendous punching power, but in the left hand he doesn't seem to
have a lot of stamina. I don't think he's got a great chin.
Every time he gets touch, he seems to get wibbled. We'll see what
Wilder this guy. I love what you said on the bet Us show that
the thing is if Wilder has concerns about whether he can react and hit him
when there's an opening. You said, Jang is so low enough where it
will be an issue, And that's part of the intrigue on can Wilder land
the big one that he really could not against Parker. Can Jang get out
of the way from that right hand if it's coming, and can Jang.
Conversely, as a south Paul maybe Land the big straight left Deontae, hence
the injury. I've been saying this since the fight with me. This fight
is about two things, Deonta's right hand and james left hand. James the
south bought with the beautiful straight left hand that can can knock out anybody,
and Deontay, in my opinions, the right hand is of historic proportions.
He is a guy that has the right hand that would be on the level
of anybody that you can think of in the history of boxing in terms of
their power. In the right hand, he touches you and you go to
sleep if he had, say the right way, end of the story.
I've seen him score numerous knockouts up close and personal in the front row where
he just absolutely obliterated a guy. Where there are multiple fights that he scored
knockouts in where those of us at ringside thought the opponent might be deceased.
I mean not to be I'm not making light of that, being very serious
where the opponent potentially was extraordinarily. You've said a couple of times the Archer
Spilka fight right, which was at Bartly Center, was right in front of
you, and you don't say this lightly. You were legitimately concerned he may
have seriously injured or killed him with the punch that he hit him with.
Yeah, but it's not just that fight. It was. It was the
fight between him and Scholka, which was hillatious, It's the Brazil fight,
It's the the Luis Ortiz, the second fight that I mentioned. It was
just the Verne rematch. I mean, he's had a bunch of big time
knockouts. I mean just his whole career has been one knockout after another.
I mean, you know, before he had the you know, when he
was going into the fight with Tyson Fury, the only time he the first
fight with Fury, he'd only been the distance one time, and that was
when he won the title for the first you know, when he beats Severne
in the first fight. Uh, and then he knocked him out in the
rematch. But the point is, even today, he's got forty three wins,
forty two or by knockout. The only time he's ever seen the final
bell in a victory is in that title win against Bermain Stevern back in the
day. And then he's got the three losses. But two of them were
by a knockout. So the only time he ever saw the final bell in
a decision, you know, it's only been one time in his entire career.
That was the that was, you know, one time. And of
course he's got the draw which went the distance too, and that in that
fight that he had the first time around with with Tyson Fury. So this
is a guy that you know, is all about getting knock at the only
time he ever went the distance into loss and heard that bell was that last
fight that he looks so poor in against Joseph Parker. So look, it's
it's it is a crapshoot kind of fight, I don't think. And let
me just make this clear. I love the matchup and it's very intriguing for
the reason we're talking about with the punch and power that both these men possess.
But I don't think it's going to be an exciting fight because the tension
is going to be there and both guys know that the other man can absolutely
obliterate them with one punch, So it's going to be tension, it seems
to me, until the time where one of them perhaps can get that shot
off and we'll see what happens. But it's it's a fascinating fight, two
big, strong heavyweights with with great punching power in either hand, with you
know, one left, one right, and the winners moving on and the
loser, you know, might be going home. And the winner certainly is
very irrelevant. We know this without even saying it, but I'll reiterate it
is very relevant at the championship level. Still with what's looming you mentioned Wilder
potentially with Jared Anderson. There's Anthony Joshua out there for Wilder, even if
it's not a title shot. Jang obviously could be back for a big time
fight if he defeats Deontay Wilder. So a lot there on that one.
And what's interesting in the chronology is immediately before this on the card is the
Hergovic battle with Daniel Dubois, which, again, the winner of that fight
is very much relevant. And again at the time that we're doing this,
we're still waiting on what is the IBF gonna do. Is the IBF gonna
make this a world title fight or not? Hergovic currently in that one slot
there for the IBF. All right, So more on this fight with Dubois.
So give me some more. It's supposed to be for the vacant title,
but there are people trying to backtrack and go against their word. Now,
I'm not advocating that Alexander Usik should be stripped to the title. I
obviously love the fact that there's an undisputed champion, but that doesn't negate the
fact that everybody involved Team Usik team you know, the Usik side for sure,
Team Dubois, the Frank Warren, everybody involved, the Saudi's obviously Team
Hurgovic, the whole group of people. Everybody knew what was in play,
or especially the IBF because they're the ones that had to put out the letters
and notify everybody that if they follow their contracts and their rules and what they
determined was going to happen, Usik should have vacated the IBF title this past
Saturday and that this fight between duwant Hergovich would be for that Bagan title.
So there's a battle on the ground happening in Riha where they're trying to get
the IBF to do the what they promised they would do again. I'm I'm
not advocating stripping a guy, but if you make a promising you give your
word, live up to it. Be a man, Daryl Peoples from the
IBF. Do what you promised you would do and what's in writing and what
everybody signed off on instead of trying to dick around and play cute with things.
So we'll see what happens with that. But regardless in terms of the
boxing match itself, do what Hergovich title or no title or interim title orherever
you want to slice it. And don't forget. The way that they could
solve this is that you know, uh, you know, Turkey al Chic
and the folks over there, but could go to Team Hergovic and you know,
visit them in the hotel room and present them with you know, all
kinds of gargantuinans amount of money to make the problem go away, because in
boxing, like in many things in life, a big pile of money can
certainly make things a lot better. So either way they're going to fight the
fight, and look, it's a huge fight for both guys. You know,
Hergevich is undefeated, he's an Olympic medal winner. He's a guy that
has the victory over Jhang. You know he was on the day of reckoning
card. He got the first round knockout real quick against an overmashed opponent while
he was waiting for his mandatory shot. If he wins, uh, there's
a very good chance, whether it's for the interim title or for the vacant
title, or however you want to slice it, that come September he can
be the opponent for Anthony Joshua at Wembley Stadium. That's a very much in
the in the mix as a very strong possibility. The Saudi's start doing a
fight in September in London like they're coming to Los Angeles in August. And
in terms of Duba, same deal. He's got a chance to you know,
if it's for the IBF title, to win the title. You know,
he's coming off of he had the knockout win against Jerrel Miller on the
day of Reckoning Card in December. I didn't think it was a great performance,
but he still got the knockout and he gave Jeryl Miller his first ever
loss, and that was for him a big win because he was able to
bounce back from getting ruined by Osik and when he challenged for the title back
last summer in Poland. So you know he's had a little bit of a
star crossed career in the sense that there was so much expectation for Dubois during
the pandemic. He had the like with no fans there. He got the
big loss and the busted orbit bone in a high stakes fight against Joe Joyce,
which really is what sent Joe Joyce up of the rankings. You know,
won a few more fights against kind of lesser type of guys, but
when he stepped up, you know, against Usik. He got knocked out
in the fight prior to that, against Kevin Larena, who's a cruiserweight you
know, slash bridge or weight whatever. You know, he got knocked down
three times in round one and almost stopped. A lot of refs would have
stopped to fight. So I questioned his chin big time for obvious reasons.
So we'll see him and Hergovic. They're both punching, you know, strong
punchers. You know, it's a it's a significant fight. It may not
have the level of public interest, let's say, compared to Jang, but
from the title standpoint, it's it's actually more significant because of the fact that
the IBF's involvement, so the winner could again we'll see what happens the rest
of this week he emerged with one of the heavyweight world titles. But either
way, the winner is going to be in a very very strong position going
forward, no doubt, especially Hergovic, again we keep saying, is looking
at an eight figure payday easily with Anthony Joshuay if that comes to fruition or
not. And I don't know, I don't really know what Dubois has at
the highest level. He was shaky at times with Jamel Miller. He did
win. We'll see, We'll see how that one plays out. So that's
the heavyweights kind of at the top. And again for Beevil Beevol fighting this
fighter from Libya by way of Malta in Malik Zanad, which again little known
Beevol heavily favored to win and it's basically a placeholder. Can he get the
undisputed fight late this year early next year with better ba But at least Beebol
will be in action here on this card as well, So say something about
that real quick. He's expected to win and win easily. Yeah, I
mean, look, I don't know much about to No, I mean,
I've not seen video of him a lot of times that these fights happen.
I've seen her, you know, know all these guys. I got to
be honest, this is not a guy that I know much about. I
have not taken the time to go and look on YouTube to see anything,
but I can look at his record. He's thirty years old. As you
mentioned, he's from Libya. He's based in Malta. Not exactly hot beds,
either of them in terms of professional boxing. He's got a nice record.
He's twenty two and oh sixteen knockouts. But then you look at the
record, TJ. And when I say there's nobody on his record, I
mean there's nobody on his record. I mean often say it, who are
the twenty two in this case? And he's fought a couple of undefeated guys
in this net. But there's nobody that anybody you've heard of right right now.
The one thing about him that that tells me something about his character is
that he has fought all over the world. This is not a guy that's
you know, been shy traveling. He's fought in Australia, he's fought in
Germany, He's fought in other places. And you're abulgi him and he's fought
Obviously, he's fighting this fight in the Middle East, he's fighting in the
UK. He's fought all over the place, so that's not uh going to
be a problem that he's traveling. So at least you know in his you
know, when I see that, it makes me think like there's character to
the athlete because of the willingness to travel and keep that undefeated record. But
we'll see, Bivell is a top five talent for pound guy. He's clearly
a notch above most fighters in boxing, much less somebody that you never heard
of that has zero resume to speak of. So yes, it should be
a win. But look, he took it on short notice. This was
only made I want to say, what when did uh when did begor b
fall out? Roughly a roughly a month in between right right? So?
And look Beevil dominated uh Zerdo Ramirez previously beat Canelo Alvarez? The only question
and we kind of debated this. Another mention on the bet Us show is
he hasn't had recent knockouts per se, So does this go the route?
Does Boble get some rounds in? Does he take it to him where We're
about to find out Saturday. I'm willing to gather that he probably gets some
rounds and just because that's the type of fighter that people is. Even in
his last fight against a fighter like Eli Zero, who just got waxed and
over the past weekend, UH on the on the undercard of the UH was
on the Fury Fight for you which card it was on, But he lost.
He lost on that on that card. Uh, you know, in
a big knockout, so you know, and and Beebele could barely do anything
with the guys, so you know, who the heck knows what's gonna happen
with that. I'm not Eli Zero, my mistake. I'm talking about Lendna
Arthur was the opponent. Yeah that was on that was the day of reckoning.
But anyway, here's the point though, comparing the opponents that Bieble has
fought to the opponents that's not as far, It's not even close. You
mentioned a couple of guys like Panelo and and Zero which are more recent,
but before that, you know Craig Richards, who's on this card, he
has a win over him, even though it was a tough fight. He
has wins over guys like Joe Smith Junior. That was the fight that I
was ringside for where he won basically every single minute of the fight other than
about you know, a few seconds in the final round. You know,
he has got to win against John Pasqualey, Bet Sullivan, morera Isaac Chalambo
when he was still a good contender. My point is he's a battle tested
guy against a lot of good opponents, and the opponent he's facing has zero
recognition of anybody on his resume. All right, So that's the WBA light
heavyweight title, the fight that may be the best fight on this card.
You and I keep saying, this is the WBA's featherweight title fight. Raymond
Ford, Camden, New Jersey, Nick Ball Liverpool, England again. Ford
off a dramatic win off of Over Kolmatov to get the vacant WBA featherweight title.
Ball had to scratch claw fighting Ray Vargas for his title. Ball lost
a lot of the early rounds, but came back against Vargas and ended up
being a draw. And now they fight each other, and let's hear it
for activity, they only fought in those previous fights like nine weeks ago.
Now here they are fighting each other and we are high. Hopefully we don't
get a stinker after we've been building this up, but we're very high on
Ford against Ball in this five versus five match. Go ahead, yeah,
I mean I have a very hard time envisioning as being a stinker now.
And maybe he's not gonna be the fight of the year, fair enough,
but the stinker is hard to hard to fathom when you look at the way
these two guys have had in recent fights. Ford had one of the more
dramatic wins you'll see ever where he came back. He was down on the
cards and he stopped Komatov in round twelve with like, like what forty seconds?
I forget how much time was up, but it was a very very
tight, you know win there was looking at the record now, he knocked
him out with seven seconds left in the fight. He knocked him. He's
losing on the cards. He knocked him down. That he had him in
trouble. Wasna was Kolmatov gonna be able to make it or not? He
staggered him, and Kolmatov kind of staggered across the ring. We've now found
out he had torn a knee ligament ye at some point, But Ford,
like you like to say, did not leave it in the hands of the
other judges. He left it in the hands of his judges the right and
the left, and ended it dramatically. Well, here's the thing in the
entire history of boxing that was only the and this is courtesy of our good
friend, the great historian Hall of Famer Steve Farhood, who put this together
after because it was a big deal. If you remember, back in twenty
twenty three, it was Oshaki Foster, who was defending his title in one
hundred and thirty pound way class, who came back and needed to win and
stopped Rocky Hernandez in the final round with about twenty two seconds left to salvage
his title and win that fight. So Steve made this list, and this
is now only the fifteenth time in the history of boxing that a fighter who
was down on points in the last round of the fight, how whether it
was twelve rounds, fifteen rounds, whatever was scheduled for, came from behind
and scored a knockout to win. And Ray four did it with seven seconds
left. I mean, it's a very uncommon thing. It was very dramatic.
Now, part of it was because obviously you can't ignore the fact that
Kolmatov had a bound to five knee injury, but he still Ford was able
to get the job done. So very exciting fight. And he's a good
fighter on top of that, good amateur and you know, Matt Room boxing
has been bringing him up since he turned pro when he's gotten to this level,
and he's he's a very you know, a good young fighter, no
doubt about it. And I think, you know, they always talk about
how you win a title become better. I think he's the epitome of a
guy because of the confidence that you get better when you when you realize what
you can do, what you can get out of yourself in that sort of
very difficult moment. And look, Nick Ball, he's been in some good,
tough fights also and is exciting. You know. He did have the
draw with Vargas. A lot of people thought he won. I thought it
was okay, a draw sem reasonable to me. He had the big win
against Isaac dog Bay in the fight before that, who was a good fighter
in the featherweight division, used to be a champion in the junior featherweight division.
You know, he won that fight clearly. That was a pretty one
sided fight. Unfortunately, in the fight before that, that took place in
May of last year. His opponent a Liedomo Lamati, he punched into a
coma unfortunately really seriously injured him. He was stopped him in round twelve.
So that was a rough one. But it just shows you the type of
you know, aggressive puncher type that nick Ball is now the one thing that's
negative for him in this fight, and it's going to be like that no
matter what he fights. His nick Ball is like five foot two. He's
very very short suitimately stature. So you know, not to say ray Ford
is like you know, King Kong in there necessarily in terms of the size,
but you know, you put a guy that's five foot two in the
ring with a guy that's a five foot seven south Ball, you're going to
notice a difference. So you know, Nick's always gonna have kind of a
you know, a hard time based on the size whoever he's fighting for the
most part. But look, this is a good classing matchup. As I
said to you when we were talking about this before, this could be the
main event of a card. This type of matchup. It just so happens
it comes on a card that's got two highly significant heavyweight fights on it.
Plus it's got you know, the one of the top pound for pound fighters
in boxing and Dmitri Bioble defending his title, so it's hard to slott it
ahead of those fights. But this is the type of match on this card.
Again, I'm not showing for anybody, just keeping it real. That
gives it the depth that makes it in my mind worth the pay per view.
Now, there's been a lot of pay per views lately, and it's
it's becoming very, very costly for anybody that follows boxing, so you have
to make some choices sometimes. But this is obvious if you're looking at the
landscape, you know, to me, this card for the value and certainly
what we're going to see in August on the Saudi card with Madromov against Crawford,
which is even more loaded than this card. Those are the types of
fights where if you're going to buy pay per views, you know you're probably
happy to spend the money. You're getting your money's worth, all right.
So Ford and Ball on the card as featherweights. Another entertaining fight is middleweights
here again the five verses five. The Matchroom middleweight is Austin Ammo Williams out
of Texas and Hamzas Sharaz, who has come on recently as a Queensberry fighter,
Islamic Muslim fighter out of England. Sharaz with an impressive knockout his last
time out, has been very active. He's got several knockouts in the last
calendar year of fighting, actually the last twelve months or so. So they
meet as middleweights and I said this to you, I know, we keep
making mention of the bet Us show that we've already done. This is like
harken back to the eighties, the seventies, the eighties when the whup bona
fide contenders were willing to fight each other because the winner realizes I'm very much
in the title picture if I win this fight. So that's the intrigue for
Amo, Williams and Shiraz. Here the middleweight fight well, as we have
talked about on this podcast on a number of occasions right now, if you
are a boxing fan, middleweight is not your first destination for a big time
fight, and that's just the reality that you know, things go in cycles,
and currently the middleweight division is is not not loaded, doesn't have a
lot of star power. The champions are somewhat anonymous Jenems got two belts,
but doesn't have a fan base. Nobody really knows them or cares about him.
You know, you've got Arisonny Laura, who's you know, basically taking
an annual annuity to fight nobody once a year. I mean that guy you
know who knows who cares about that? And uh, you know they finally
the WBC finally stripped Charlow after yet another issue and a long, long long
layoff of sabbatical, had no real choice, so they've elevated Carlos to Damis,
but he fights somewhat in anonymity. Unfortunately, he is going to defend
his title coming up on the uh Tank Davis card that comes up in a
couple of weeks against Terrell Gachet. Not the most interesting matchup to be quite
honest. So what that says is middleweight it ain't where it's at. But
if you look down below the championship level guys that I just mentioned, you
got the two young bright lights of the weight class, which are both up
and coming fighters who have a lot of potential, a lot of people are
high on, who've made some good fights, who scort some nice knockouts.
In that Shiraz and Williams, and you know, I give them both credit
now, Yeah, of course they're getting paid probably their biggest pay days a
Saudis are taking care of them big time. But there's no title at stake.
They're still early in their careers. It's not even at least not that
I'm aware of sanction as any kind of like official elimination fight or anything like
that. They're just going in there and they're going to try to make a
name for themselves in a big way because whoever wins is going to be able
to say, hey, I beat the other top prospect in the division.
And you know, if you consider them to be like they're both at that
sort of stage in their career where some people will say they're prospects, some
will call them like rising contenders or you know, up and coming tenders.
How do you look at it? The guy that wins the fight, I
think you can save flee and then just call them a contender the way I
look at it. And so there's a lot of stake from that point of
view. And in AML Williams's case, three fights a year ago, including
with the veteran Steve Roles in twenty twenty three, so he's been active.
Sharraz again was victory. He just said the two fights in twenty twenty three.
He's had one fight so far this year. Okay, so correct.
So this is the fourth fight in basically like thirteen months for him, thirteen
fourteen months. When last we saw Sharaz, he dispatched Liam Williams back in
February in a single round. And again he's been active to an extent.
Previous to that he had one fight in twenty twenty three, but before that
in twenty twenty two, he had won one two three fights. So these
are guys that are relevant and the winner, again we've set this up.
The winner is definitely going to be in the picture for a title shot.
Maybe not next, maybe it is next, but certainly soon, you would
think for the winner in that fight with Sharraz and Ammo Williams, and then
there's one day. Besides, besides the significance of that aspect, what you're
talking about with the fight in the ring, when when, when, when
the bell goes, Williams and Charras, in my opinion, is going to
be an entertaining fight. I think their styles are going to mess pretty well.
You know, the one thing, Sharraz is a lot taller than most
of his opponents. Uh that that could make it look a little bit kind
of weird. Sometimes that happens, Uh, you know, he's about six
foot three, six foot four. Williams is about six foot So there is
that aspect of it. But action wise, I think these guys are gonna
make a good fight. And I think they also be being youngish. They
know that they're like that they're there to shine and make a statement in the
weight class. And I think they're gonna gonna fight the way that that that
mentality is. And Sharraz certainly pipe bombed Liam Williams in a hurry in the
U in the last matchup that he had. So let's see what it looks
like in Saudi Arabia. And one more fight back to the light heavyweights.
Craig richardson or Craig richards I'm sorry, and Willie Hutchinson will fight a twelve
round fighting. You mentioned Craig richards previously here in our conversation, So this
is another light heavyweight fights. I mean again, this is part of that
card. It's going to be going on all afternoon Saturday afternoon as we released
his podcast US time into the early evening late night Saudi Arabia time. But
even these light heavyweights are inaction as well. Yeah, I mean, look,
this is probably the one fight I'm not I don't mean it's a bad
fight, because I'm interested in this fight. Also, it's the most anonymous
fight, if you will, because Richards has been sort of like always the
B side when he's fought. For the most part. He did give Dmitri
Biebel one of his tougher fights, maybe his toughest fight, to be quite
honest. That was in May of twenty twenty one. He lost the decision,
but he definitely competed very well. And then you know, he had
a layoff where he didn't fight at all in twenty twenty three. He had
some injuries and that kind of thing. But prior to that, his other
loss in more recent times was he had a tough, tough, close fight
against Joshua Blatz. He's become one of the top contenders in the wakelest so
the losses in recent vintage are at least against the top level fighters in the
division. And then he came back after I mentioned he didn't fight it all
in twenty twenty three. He came back in this past February off that long
layoff in that injury. You know, it took him a couple of rounds
to get things going, but he knocked out the reputable journeyman Boris Kriney laid
him out in the seventh round. Very good knockout and puts himself in a
great position. Now, Hutchinson is from Scotland and a lot of people have
looked at him as like one of the great Scottish amateurs of all time.
This guy was very, very, very decorated. He's also managed by Shelley
Finkle, who also manages Deontay Wilder, so he's in that stable of fighters.
He's with Queensberry. He's been fighting professionally since twenty seventeen. He hasn't
really stepped up. He's had some like inconsistencies, let's call it. He
has a loss by a very shocking stoppage against Lenox Clark in twenty twenty one,
and so that sort of gave some people pause. But he's still on
the rise because he's not an old fighter. He's only twenty five years old,
and you know he's been acted since then. He's won like five fights
or four fights since then, wins most of those fights by knockout. All
of his fights frankly since that loss have been by knockout. And so again,
when you look at boxing and you look at the phrases that people use,
crossroads fight, that's exactly what this this. This is a young fighter
in Hutchinson, who a lot of people still think has potential to be a
champion, but he's not faced anybody on the level of Greig Richards. You
have Craig Richards, who is the season veteran. He's fought for a world
title. He has suffered losses to a champion, and Beevo suffered a loss
to Bowatzi who was a top quality contender. And now it's up to up
to the two guys to settle it. Can the young guy get to the
next level by beating the veteran or can the veteran keep it going and land
another shot by turning back, you know, the young, hungry up and
comer in Hutchinson. Very fascinating fight in that respect, And we've gone for
a little bit on this, I mean, how much more do you need?
Again? But it's only cart the preview for the week they're not paying
us to say this, but how much more do you need? Saturday afternoon?
Which not unlike the Fury USK card, it's gonna begin fairly early and
it's gonna go on for hours and hours before you get to the two big
heavyweight fights. For sure, go ahead. The Usk fight had eight fights
on the pay per view. This is only six, and then had to
light on only six though on the pay per view only. This is six
fights total. In an era where we're lucky to get three good fights on
a pay per view, I'm gonna go ahead and say you're probably gonna get
four or five out of this group of six that are gonna be good fights,
memorable fights, who knows, who knows? With what we have.
And again we make mention I made mention of this earlier that you're gonna recap
it on your substack and uh and again, whatever happens with all of this,
you'll get that from Dan. There's not gonna be a recap podcast here,
but I know you're very intrigued to watch a whole lot of boxing be
locked in on his social media and on his substack for what's gonna happen with
this? Five versus five card that also includes the Bevil title defense in addition
to the Queensberry Matchroom matchups. Okay, some news. Let's start with Terrence
Crawford. Since we talked on the weekend, this is not a surprise.
It does not look like he will be back at welterweight. And the WBC
Wait a minute, this is same WBC that let Jamal Charlow float along for
literally three years is now saying, Okay, Terrence Crawford hasn't fought anybody at
welter wait in a year, and so we are essentially stripping him, making
him what the franchise champion, the champion in recess. I can't keep it
straight with whatever the WBC says that it is. They have made him the
champion recess. Take it for whatever you want. He's moving up in wait
and they'll make him decide what division he wants to remain in following the August
start fight. Now, I'm not really entirely sure why they made this move.
I did correspond via email a little bit the other night when this happeness
happened on Monday night, or they announced it on Monday, Marticio Suliman and
I corresponded on on Monday Night. And the one thing I do have well,
first of all, I like Marishow and I have a respect for me,
so even though we don't necessarily agree on everything boxing related, but one
thing I do respect a lot is that whatever the situation is, he'll answer
you. He doesn't try to run and dock the questions. You know,
you may not like his answers, but he's he's a polite enough and nice
enough and and good enough to give you the time and the uh and the
uh and the and the legitimate answer that you need, even if again you
don't necessarily agree. But anyway, they they did this move, and again
I'm not entirely sure why because normally when these things happen, if there is
somebody that is the interim champion, they become the champion. But in this
case, giov Giovanni Santition or not Santio. Uh, it was uh Mario
Barrios, my mistake. Correct. Mario Barrios has been the WBC's interim welterweight
champion, and he fought just recently a couple of weeks ago on the Canelo
Alvarez undercard. He won his fight against uh Magdalendo and or not Magdalena.
Who did he be? Tell me, I forget what we thought. My
mind is a mess. The bottom line. So we're so enthralled with the
five versus five, Yes, but Barrio's he had he had trouble in that
fight. He had the eye that was swollen. Shut uh And I'm just
looking back on it here on who that was. No, it was against
Fabian Maydonna. He found at Maydonna, not Magalena. Close enough all right
that night and like forty five pounds later Magdaleno got knocked out. But anyway,
bottom line is he retained the interim title against Madonna. And normally if
a guy is no longer the champion, the interim champion becomes the full champion.
Mauritio was response to me, was there's no rush. He just fought.
We're waiting till August to see what happens with Crawford, and if he
wins the fight, he'll tell it or lose the fight for that matter.
It'll then be up to him within uh, you know, a short time
period to tell the WBC in which division he will campaign. So I guess
the way you look at and I was the WBC title, the world title
is vacant, Barrios is the interim champion, and Terrence Crawford is the champion
in recess, so he can come back to welter Way if he wants,
and I guess they would, I guess order him to fight some other fight,
maybe it would be against Barrios. So you know that was the situation.
But I think in the end we all know. And this is the
kind of thing that always happens when you have a bunch of titles that are
unified and the champion decides to change divisions or give the other division a try.
It's like a slow drip, one bell goes away. The IBF belt
went to ns because he didn't make the mandatory. Now they gave they did.
The reason I mentioned Santan is because we saw Giovanni Santan against Brian Norman
a couple of weeks or last week. I guess they fought for the interim
WBO title, which was in essence the WBO fulfilling that not yet vacant title,
but being ready when it becomes vacant, then Norman will ascend to the
champion. Because he defeated Santian, the WBA's got stanionis in position as the
regular champion. He'll become the only champion once Crawford is done. And we
just discussed the situation with the WBC, so from the undisputed four bell champion,
suddenly they're just being splintered as expected. So anyway, you know,
it's not going to have a title relevance in terms of what Crawford's going to
do because he's most likely ninety nine point nine percent chance. I would say
he's staying whatever happens against Magemov as a junior middleweight. And so I was
going to say, if you're a betting man, at this point, the
money's on he's not coming back to one forty seven. So he's done.
He's been there, done that. There's not even it'd be one thing if
there was some mega fight for him in the division. But the mega fight
was Erol Spence. He already fought that fight, he obviously won very decisively,
and so he's looking for a bigger fight. And if you listen to
what you know the comments at Turkey al chic Makes, who obviously is working
with him on this Majimov event that's going to be in August, he's still
like to make a Canelo Alvarez versus Crawford fight, and that's a fight I
think Crawford would love to have. It's obviously a huge amount of money,
a great challenge to go up to fight a legend like that. You know,
not to say Crawford is not a great fighter, but you know,
again, weight classes are creative for a reason. Divisions, So we'll see.
Uh, that was what happened with Terrence Crawford this week. I mean
there's some movement on the title belt and again he's to be in the ring
August third as a junior middleweight for that WBA title, for that title fight
in Los Angeles. All right. Speaking of Los Angeles, that's where Mike
Tyson was headed on a cross country flight Sunday when he suffered, by his
own spokespeople's relaying to the media a medical episode believed to be a flare up
of an ulcer. Those are never fun, never good if that's what this
was, If it's all that, it was so much so that they came
on And this is according to the reporting of not Only in Touch Weekly,
which is kind of a gossip magazine site along with People magazine. That's the
same thing and The New York Post. They talked to passengers on the plane,
both outlets, who said they made an announcement over the speaker, is
there a doctor on the plane, please come to first class. They didn't
say Mike Tyson's name. They even put it on the screens. I haven't
seen this on a flight that I've been on. If you're obviously in your
own world, watching TV, watching a movie, they put it on the
screens. Is there a doctor? If so, please come to first class.
And it turns out that Mike Tyson was treated by medical personnel at the
gate the flight landed at its destination in Los Angeles. He was treated,
not clear on if he went to the hospital or not. Spokesperson said thank
you to the medical staff, to the airline for helping out. All right,
I know you've probably been doing a little digging in the last couple of
days since all of this has come out. The first concern is we're still
about seven weeks away from the Jake Paul fight that's gonna take place, and
there are concerns at almost fifty eight years of age, is this a sign
of issues with Mike Tyson. We're not doctors, but what else have you
been finding out No, I mean I just know what the reports were.
He had some nausea, he had some dizziness. They said it was because
of a flare up of as you mentioned, some type of issue with an
ulcer. And so my thought was, you know, number one, Mike's
gonna be fifty eight years old. First of all, I'm glad Mike's okay,
obviously, I mean that's the main thing. But that's the got to
be is that's the serious thing when you when you have to send out a
message on a on a flight like that, if there is there a doctor
in the house. I mean, they don't mess around with that. I
mean I don't do that exactly. They don't do that rightly exactly. I've
traveled on airplanes, you know, zillions and zillions of miles in my life,
especially you know, all over the United States and internationally for by boxing
events. I know you've done the same in terms of you know, covering
Tampa Bay Buccaneers and college events that you've covered and that sort of thing.
I have been on airplanes where there's been people that have required medical attention.
There was the one, actually it wasn't even that long ago where I thought
we were gonna have to make an emergency landing because the person was in some
kind of the rest big time. It didn't come to that thing when the
person seemed to be okay when we landed. But the point is, that's
a scary thing. And now you're talking about Mike Tyson. It's scary just
as a regular guy. But now he's, like you said, seven eight
weeks away from an actual boxing match where a young guy twenty seven to twenty
year old, you know, in his prime, physically strong, big right
hand, perhaps a bit of a novice in terms of his boxing, but
still very strong and has basically lived a boxing in the boxing gym for the
last you know, four or five years as he's you know, be come
into the professional ranks. So you it does give you positive This guy can't
make it through an airplane trip, you know, without needing medical attention.
The aren't you concerned a little about what might happen seven eight weeks from now
in a boxing ring where uh, they're going to be having a professional fight.
You know, listen, it's the Texas Commission's gonna have to ask a
few questions, in my opinion, and that's that's just based on what they're
talking about. In terms of the reports about what his condition was, we
don't know for sure what it was. I mean, it sounded like it
was serious, but not serious enough to like, look, I can tell
you. Let me follow up on what you said. I've been in this
situation on an occasion before, and it was in the back of the plane
where I was flying commercially, not with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. And those
flight attendants are ultra trained, but they're not usually medical people. They don't
have a medical background. Now, if someone, let's say, is having
heart failure, heaven forbid, they are trained in CPR. The flight attendants
we're talking about, they're trained in how to use a defibrillator, but they
are not doctors. And in this case, there was a doctor on the
plane that I was on. And this stuff does not go on lightly.
If they're making that announcement, it's because somebody is in serious enough dress if
they think they need a doctor, and they may have to put the plane
down wherever they can put the plane. And in this case, he was
about thirty minutes away in a six hour flight from Miami to LA Again,
we don't know a lot that we don't know, but legitimate questions have to
be asked right now by the Texas Commission before this ever takes place. But
do you like this tead? Forget about Tyson being fifty seven to fifty on
Fight Nite. If this was a in prime, top notch fighter that had
an episode on an airplane less than two months before a fight, even that
fighter, there'd be questions being asked dress a guy that's you know, years
old and hadn't thought, by the way, for nineteen years in terms of
a real fight. Yep, So it's incumbent. Now on let's check everything
out. Let's see that everything goes along. Every everybody wants to get paid.
It's gonna be a spectacle, and everybody wants to get paid get paid
handsomely here. But let's see what else they do with Iron Mike, the
former undisputed heavyweight champion of the world. All right, So one more thing
while we're talking about stripping fighters, et cetera. Canelo Alvarez, the undisputed
super but I mean, he's got a purse bid scheduled here and the team
for the fighter that we know very little about, skull is his name Uh,
they want the immediate purse bid. Canelo's not fighting this guy, ray
Phiel, So this is this is this is more about is he gonna get
paid step aside money so that Canelo doesn't get stripped with the IBF, which
has happened before. As we've talked about. Let's back up for a second.
We'll back up a second, because you can't have came out it the
wrong way. The reality is we talked about this in the last show.
The IBF made the mandatory order of Canelo defend the IBF mandatory against this William
Skull character, who is completely unknown, unloved in the boxing world, in
my opinion, has no real credential. Did fight on Canelo's last undercard a
couple of weeks ago that was so very deep on the show that somebody like
myself that was hoping to get there in time to see the fight to get
an idea of who this mandatory is couldn't get there in time because I was
tied up with the Gervanta Tank Davis, David Benavide's card press commerce they were
having at the MGM Grant, So you know, I didn't see the fight.
I actually talked to some of the people involved in the promotion who were
interested to see the fight, and they also were not able to get there
in time because they were dealing with the Tank Davis and the Benavidea's pay per
view card press conference. Anyway, when the IBF makes the order, one
of the things that are in their rules is they give the two camps thirty
days to make a deal. If they don't make a deal, they order
a person. But it is the right of either side. They choose not
to negotiate, or maybe they start negotiating, doesn't go very well and they're
like, screw it. They can ask for an immediate purspit and then the
IBF will order the perspit. So in the case of William Skull, in
this case, they only went about what maybe eight or nine days after they
made the order, barely a third of the way through what the allotted timeframe,
which was thirty days, and the team for Skull was like, screw
it, let's ask for the person. So the IBF did what it's what
it does if they followed their roles, and they set this person for June
sixth. So the question becomes, why didn't they just play it out for
the thirty days and see what they could come up with. Maybe they're just
looney tune enough to think that Canelo will fight them. I just don't see
that out. He's not fighting him. I mean, we know that he's
not the only way I could see that fight happening is if Canelo was willing
to take a huge amount of haircut in terms of his money, which you
know, I doubt he's going to do at this stage. Let me say
again, you like to swap me. He's not fighting him. He's got
several other options. He's not fighting him. So are we looking step aside
money? Which is what I was part of my preamble there, is that
what you looking at? Because otherwise the IBF has stripped Canelo before, they
stripped him of the middleweight title, and he went crazy on Oscar de la
Hoy and his people when that happened back in the late twenty ten. So
there's no there's no question that the DIBF will do that if that's what it
comes to. But here's the thing. Even if he does make a step
aside deal, you know, what are you stepping aside for? Are you
ever going to fight him? I don't know the answer to that. Now,
one thing about it is he doesn't have a promoter. Right now,
Canelo was a free agent broadcast free agent in terms of his promotion, so
he could theoretically work again with with a PBC if they make a deal on
whatever fight he wants, you know, if they can come to an agreement
on the numbers, and if they did that, you know PBC would probably
accommodate the skull and put him on one of those cards, because that's oftentimes
what goes along with these step aside deals is you keep you pay the guy
off by giving him fights at a high number to just say busy on these
undercards. We if Canelo doesn't have a promoter, who's he going to get
to pay for that event when he's not doing his own shows specifically. So
there's a lot going into this. So it's going to come to a head
pretty quickly because by next week we're going to know because the perspit is June
six. Now, the one thing that could happen and often does happen in
all perspits, not just IBF, is that if both sides go to the
IBF and say, listen, where we're getting close to something, can you
give us an extension. Most likely the IBF would say absolutely, no problem.
They would put it off for you know, maybe two weeks or something
like that and let them have some additional time to work on whatever they're working
on. So just because June six is the date that was announced doesn't necessarily
mean that that's when it will take place. I mean, this ain't my
first rodeo, but the point is something with the IBF SUPERMANI whit title is
going to come to ahead in fairly short order. All right, say one
final time? Canello's not fighting that guy? All right? Nostalgia? Time
to wrap it. And earlier this week as we released this podcast, we
did not make mention of it coming off of the weekend the twelfth anniversary of
the passing of Johnny Tapia five world title hold in three different divisions Hall of
Famer. I know you want to commemorate this because you obviously covered this guy.
He was a warrior, He battled demons obviously outside of the ring.
So say something more here about man, it's hard to believe it's been twelve
years for Johnny Tappy. Johnny Tapia, first of all, is a great
fighter, worthy Hall of Famer, the kind of guy that would fight anybody,
anywhere, anytime, and fought a lot of a lot of good names
and won a lot of fun fights. Had a long contract with Showtime where
he fought a ton of fights on Showtime. Highly entertaining, as adored in
his hometown of Albert, Quirky, as any fighter is adored in their hometown,
you know. Really had to love and respect for that in community.
Now, like you said, he battled demons big time, had a lot
of issues, did time in jail, but was really more about hurting himself
and doing things that were negative to himself as opposed to other people. I
mean, he was suspended for a while because of his cocaine use, you
know, terrible, terrible drug problems in and out of rehab. Yeah,
I mean, here's here's here's how how sad the situation was. On his
wedding day. Teresa Tapia, his wife with he has three children with,
who was his manager also during his boxing care really the rock of him.
Uh. The day they got married, she found him in the bathroom shooting
up drugs. And that's not a good way to get off to a start
of the marriage, you know. And he had a lot of issues Throughout
his life. He saw his mother murdered when he was eight years old,
stabbed to death with a screwdriver. Thought his father was dead before he was
even born, come to find out many many years later that his father had
just been released from prison. As he described it, if you ever read
the the autobiography that he has about how he had uncles that would put him
in fights against older and bigger kids like and he says, I was brought
up like I'm a pit bull, I mean, just a rough life.
But my interactions with him, and you could ask a million people who knew
him, or met him or were around him in the in the those personal
moments as sweet, as nice, as kind, as friendly as you could
ever meet. You know, when I've written and said things about Johnny Tappy,
I've gotten like responses from people on my social media. One guy wrote
to me about how he had met him in an airport, you know,
years ago, with his family, and they talked for like an hour,
and by the time they were done, it felt like they had known each
other for like year. He felt like he'd been his friend for like ten
years. I mean that's just the kind of guy he was. I mean
just a wonderful guy and a great fighter. And there was a period of
time where when he passed and I went back and I reread the column that
I wrote after he had died, that you could make the argument that at
that time when he passed, that the only two names that you could mention
as the greatest junior bantam weights in the history of the division which was created,
I believe in like the nineteen eighties was Johnny Tappy or a Chaosi Galaxy
from Thailand. Now perhaps that's not the true anymore because we've seen great fighters
like Chocolatito Gonzales in that weight class and do some big things, et cetera.
But no matter what, he's certainly among the Mount Rushmore monster in the
present day. We get it. It's as much later, right, So
he's in that he's in that conversation of the top you know, two or
three or four in that weight class. And not to mention he also won
world titles, you know, at one hundred and eighteen pounds one hundred and
twenty six pounds when he won in one hundred and fifteen. His big win
was that gigantic rivalry fight against Danny Romero. That was such a such a
divisive fight in their community of Albuquerque, that over security concerns in large measure,
they put the fight at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas because
they were so worried about what might happen in terms of the ganging activity in
on Albuquerque, New Mexico. But just a just a great fighter. And
uh, you know, and I wrote about this at the time. There's
a lot of times, you know, when fighters get to the end of
their careers, they don't nobody wants to see them get beat up and and
and they say this guy should retire, and you know, he should call
it a day. The one fighter I never, ever for two seconds said
should retire. I thought Johnny Tapia should fight for as long as he was
physically cap And he actually was on a decent winning streak before he had his
last fight, because he wasn't fighting the elite guys, but he was staying
active. And the reason I say that is because boxing was the only thing
in his life that gave him any structure, right, that kept him away
from the demons and the vices and the drugs and that sort of stuff.
So when he had some kind of schedule or regiment that he followed. He's
in the gym that sort of kept him at least focused a lot of times.
So my opinion was led, Johnny tapy a fight for as long as
he possibly can do it, and I'm not gonna worry if he loses a
couple of fights to say you retired, you know, you know, provided
he wasn't getting to beat up, which he never really did even in his
losses. You know, Johnny, you know, in five losses and Ocurre
only got stopped the one time, and he was just you know, at
a great chin. And the thing about it was never had big punching power,
but still could go in there and dazzle with his boxing skills. I
mean, he was tremendous even when he lost, you know, fights against
Barrera late in his career where he was outclassed, hung in there. The
whole fight. Had two you know, epic battles with Paul Ayala that were
you know, one was the fight of the year, yes, legit,
and then he had the other one. They were both very close, somewhat
controversial, tremendous fights that he lost. But you know, that's kind of
like Gaddy Ward, Like people sometimes you don't even remember who won because they
were so good. That makes sense. So Johnny Tapia, yep, tremendous
fight, all time great fighter, and it only stopped literally like at the
way way into his career, got stopped one time by a juryman opponent and
again taken too soon by years of drug abuse. Heart failure claimed him in
twenty twelve. So we commemorated that from earlier this week, all right,
as we released the podcast. Friday is the thirty first of May. Here
and Vince Phillips scored a massive upset for the IBF Junior welterweight title of one
Hall of Famer Costa Zoo. That was twenty seven years ago May thirty first,
nineteen ninety seven. What else is remarkable, obviously besides the Phillips shocker
that he beat a Hall of Fame fighter, Well, Vince Phillips was a
good fighter. Vince Fille another guy whose career was probably cut short because he
had a lot of problems with drugs. He comes in out of that Pensacola
area in Florida. He was a big part of the Roy Jones camp and
stable. Matter of fact, if you ever watched the broadcast this was a
main event on HBO's Boxing After Dark. Roy Jones was one of the commentators
and Vince was close to him, and so when he stopped. When when
Vince Stoppedkasa, he hear Roy Jones yell like cheering them us, yes,
like you know. Then he did it big, big upset. But Vince
Phillips had massive power in the right hand. But the thing about costa do
at this time, remember this is I think sometimes lost one. But yes,
he had the IBF title at one hundred and forty pounds. But make
no mistake about it, he was being groomed and set up for a fight
against Oscar de la Hoya. And this is the fight that kind of killed
that because he had been on some top rank undercards and they were bringing him
along. He had come over from Australia to fight in the United States,
and he was absolutely on the dance card for a future Oscar fight and then
he got upset. Matter of fact, it was such a big upset when
Vince Phillips knocked him out that in nineteen ninety seven the Ring magazine called it
the set of the Year, that's how big of a deal it was.
And Vince by the way. It wasn't like he didn't take some damage in
that fight too. He had a big cutover his right eye. You know.
On the cards, it was somewhat close. It was a draw on
one card at the time of the stoppage. You had one guy ahead on
one card by a point. On the card of the stopage, you had
another guy ahead by a point or two on the card. So they were
on their way to what was looking like a split draw. But Vince,
you know, he closed the show a big time. This was a shocker
of shakers. Kasazu was people thought was gonna you know, he turned out
to be a great Hall of Famer, but at that time, after this
loss, it was sort of like a big shock because the way he made
himself a Hall of Famer wasn't what he had done prior to the Vince Philips
fight, even though he had a you know, held the world title and
won a few fights, but never any kind of names. It was only
after he regained the title, after he made the comeback post Vince slips,
that he then cemented himself as a bona fide Hall of Famer with big wins
obviously, you know, a nice a nice run against some top names in
that weight class, including you know, be becoming undisputed when he knocked out
zab Judah. But this was that big a shocker as you'll see. I
mean, this is I'm trying to think of, like what would it be
like from today's time in terms of upsets where you're just like totally shocked by
what occurred. Nothing comes to mind immediately on that. But again, upsets
do you have, you know, Andy Ruiz obviously in the in the present
with the stunner over Anthony Joshua when everybody thought that was a coronation, comes
to mind, and this would be level. Maybe it's not quite as big
of an upset, but it's like in the same level of chakra just because
the guy wasn't given a chance in the same way class you know, not
the same weight class, I guess. But when when George Kimbos's batthe Me
Lopez hm chakra of shocks, right, this was not quite that big of
a shock, but it was still like, oh my god, I cannot
believe that. Then Phillips just not castes you well, not even that he
just won the fight, that he stopped him. That was like blew you
away. Love the nostalgia one more piece. You and I have talked about
this before I saw it on your social media back on Tuesday. I don't
want to accept that it was forty two years ago that Rocky three was out
in theaters nineteen eighty two for Sylvester Stallone and Carl Weathers and we got introduced
to mister T as clubber Lang and we've now since lost Carl Weathers here.
Mister T's birthday, by the way, was just recently, I want to
say, seventy one years of age, still alive, a slice Stallone obviously
still alive. But I know you love to go on and on about rock
and I love me some Rocky movies and I loved Rocky three in the theater
especially too. All Right, how can I not put this on the rundown
when it's the anniversary you said previously, and I'm going to tee it up
for you. And what you just swing away and blasted five hundred feet that
it's the greatest opening ten minutes in cin cinematography for the song that I had,
the Tiger song and the drama of him scoring all the knockouts, and
we're catching up on Rocky's life posts the apollo Creed Win in Rocky two,
and we're seeing him. We're seeing clubber Lang who's fighting in anonymity and he's
angry and he wants a shot at the champ and he's sitting ring siding.
He never gets the shot at the champ. It's kind of like ala Marvin
Hagler, you know, not getting the shot at the champ. Saw it
all an. It's the juxtaposition of him training in the in the basement doing
the gun work, and on the split screen he got Stallone is making appearances
and getting mobbed by autograph seekers and driving his fancy cars and on all the
magazine covers and they're playing the song and he's knocking guys out, and then
club were laying is running the streets, getting in shape, you know,
with the smoke coming out of his nose and you know, looking to tear
anybody's head off, like he's living the life of a contender who's hungry.
I the Tiger and Stallone is you know, getting fat, dumb and happy
on his accomplishments, and that juxtaposition that sets the stage for this classic battle
where he loses the title, his trainer and manager dies Mickey you know,
he's got all kinds of issues there. He loses, he gets beat up,
and then you know, can you come back and enter the great rival
Apollo Creed, who says, you know, I want to train you.
Uh, but you got to give me a brilliant writing and in the storyline
because they were they were arch rivals, and now you're going to have Apollo
try to hell help Rocky get what back the eye of the time you had
the eye of the tiger Man and the uh and the doesn't have. The
only time that ever happened, and again it's not the same because they were
not as bitter rivals is when when in the last uh you know time when
arturro Gott he was finishing his career where his great rival Mickey Ward actually became
his official trainer for the last I think one or two fights. But for
that to go in the you know, you would say that is classic Hollywood.
So and Carl Weathers obviously looked the part as a boxer. You know,
there's the classic scene, uh you know in the gym where he's you
know, kind of slacking off and they're training and sparring. I actually watched
the clip on the Twitter today. You put it, you put it out
there on social media, the fame. I retweeted somebody. You know,
he's like, what's the run? What's the matter with you? You know,
we'll Essentially Rocky is essentially having PTSD. And this is not the Rocky
that beat Apollo Creed. He doesn't have it anymore, or seemingly doesn't have
it anymore. And there also with that glove pointing at him, there is
no tomorrow resonates even forty plus years later, and mister t is like the
greatest villain in the Rocky films because you do you remember how Stallone found him?
You know how Stallone discovered him? All right? Stallone discovered him because
there was some kind of competition a reality show that NBC was actually doing in
the early eighties where mister t the entertainer name, did very well in the
reality show as like a barroom bouncer, fighter athletic. And he saw this
guy and said, I think that's my villain. That's my villain for the
third fight. If it's not aside to that, one of the one of
the ways that mister Tigue became involved in Hollywood, and that I don't know
if it was Rocky related, but it was certainly. Other things that made
him famous was he was his agent for a long period of time. Who
he remained close to for many, many many years was the late promote or
Dan Goosen. How was his guy? So anyway, uh, everything,
mister T got the pro wrestling stuff with hul Cogan. Shortly thereafter he got
the Smash Team weekly drama, the A Team on NBC. So it was
everything on this Fight Everything movie. Everything about that movie is awesome. Thunderlips
with the with the charity thing with right right, I mean, and and
the story was so perfect. And then of course I got trivia for you
ray Field. He wins the title back obviously, I know, he gets
his revenge with Apollo helping him. I got Trivia for you, you know.
And then they do the scene at the very end of the film where
he collects what's this, what's the favor I have to give you? And
it's him to go behind and close the doors because Carl Weathers, you know,
Apollo can't deal with the fact that you beat me by one second.
That's very hard with a man of my intelligence to accept. Yeah, classic,
you told me by the way accepted it relied in the in that scene
you've got that that massive Lee roy Neeman painting of what's supposed to be Apollo
and Rocky in that final scene where they go to throw the simultaneous punch,
that that is an actual Leroy Neman painting that the great artist painted that Stallone
has in his less Yes he does. All right, I'm gonna hit you
with one last bit of trivia before we are gone. Do you realize I
know you keep saying that to me, the first one, Rocky is the
greatest one of all time. I'm not saying that Rocky three isn't good,
and I'm not saying I won't watch even forty years later. I do watch,
just for me. It's Rocky trivia time. Do you know what song
Stallone wanted and didn't get for the beginning of Rocky three? What very famous
song he wanted and couldn't get permission? Are you ready? Well? I'm
I'm glad he didn't get it because Baby Still Loane contacted the management, the
promotion and Freddie Mercury because he wanted we will rock you. Okay with the
Rocky part of it, he wanted we will rock you to be essentially the
theme of Rocky three. And guess what Wayne and Freddie Mercury said, No
thanks, go Pound Salt mate, No thanks. They did not know you
have him permission to use the song. And meanwhile, Survivor essentially wrote the
song around the movie The Eye of the Tiger and the rest is history.
How about that one, brother Rayfield. Listen, great script, great movie,
great acting, great music, great everything. I was actually rewatching that
opening montage thinking about how hard that must have been able to because they had
to shoot so many things to put that all together for a total of literally
about seven minutes. I mean, well, I shouldn't say that, because
the first three or four minutes is actually the very end of Rocky two when
he wins the title. No, but I mean there's a good seven or
eight minutes where they're setting up the whole clubber Lange and the song and all
of it. Rockies. Now, Rocky's now intelligent, Rocky's well spoken,
He's a businessman. He goes from being illiterate to being a you know,
a guy brokering multi million. It is Hollywood. It is Hollywood, but
you gotta admit. As we close this podcast out before I go on my
Alaskan cruise vacation with the family. And again, if this is my last
podcast because the Kodiak Bear took me out, make sure Rayphiel says good things
about me in my absence from here on out. You gotta admit I came
strong with the title song was supposed to be if Stallone had his way.
They made the offer, if Stallone had his way, it was going to
be Queen We Will Rocks. How about I said, I'm glad. I'm
glad that that did not work out because it would not have gotten High of
the Tiger, which is, forty years later, one of the most iconic
Ringwalk songs. You hear that music, do you think of one thing and
that is rocky? You think of it immediately. So I'll tell you it's
funny about that. So when I travel on the trip, like when I
go to Vegas, I have my iPod. I listened to it on the
airplane, and I have I have that among the zillions of songs that are
on my iPod, And there are times where I'll fly out to the fight
and I play that and I just take it on like repeat and listen to
it about five six times in a row love it. There you go forty
two years ago with the release of Rocky three. With that, are we
ready for the five versus Five? Dan Rayfield, Wilder Jang headlining very deep
card. Again. We have already broken it down on the bet Us boxing
shows, so go back and watch what we did earlier this week on their
platforms YouTube, Twitter, Twitch, et cetera. Once again, once more,
no recap podcasts on the feed. I'm gone, I'm not available.
I'm hopefully back. God willing off the cruise to Alaska. Long way from
Tampa Bay, Brother Rayfield to get up to Seattle and get up to Alaska.
Hello on the same continent. I will report back a week from now.
Everything being equal on the Big Fight Weekend preview for next weekend. If
you want Dan's recaps and his thoughts, subscribe to his substack his email newsletter
title Sports. With the YouTube page, you'll have a little recap mode there.
They get your social media, they can get your thoughts on all of
this as it unfolds. With that, have a great weekend and I will
be back in touch at the end of next week when we get into the
preview mode. Next week. Dan Rayfield all else good Yes, sir,
I hope you enjoyed the cruise. Thank you, my friend, and we
thank you for listening. For following, Subscribing Apple Screakers, Spotify, you
get these podcasts a big fight weekend preview that you've been listening to. Enjoy
the five versus five and everything that happens there. We're glad that you have
been with us for Dan Rayfield. I'm TJ Reeves. Enjoy the fights.